The Twenty20, The Porsche The Golden Quadrilateral and more...

I suppose the euphoria of the T20 World Cup win has kind of died down now. But it was such a wonderful thing to watch. Being a die hard cricket fan all my life finally paid off. There have been some great victories over the past many years, but such a wonderful win on a world stage was heart warming. Of course so called cricket pandits will say that it is just slam bang cricket and not real cricket. Others will say that its a game played in only 10 countries and so winning is no big deal. But let people think want they want. It was a wonderful win and a time to rejoice for all criket fans. The T20 format is also great. Just 3 hours, non stop action, and unlike what the pandits say, you need considerable skill with both bat and ball to succeed. Hope this format becomes more popular...

So whats the significance of the porshe. Well that was one of the innumerable goodies offered to the Men in Blue. Now this is a little embarassing. Its ok if the BCCI gave lots of money. But some of the other goodies offered seemed terribly ridiculous!!! A porsche to Yuvraj Singh!! Where do they even get that machine from?? Promotions for 4-5 players contracted with Air India and free flights?? What about the poor fellows in Air India who actually work hard!! I am a Keralite but i cannot stop myself from mentioning this. The Kerala state government gave 5 lakhs to Sreesanth. Ok fair enough. But then they announced 3 Lakhs to Robin Uthappa because his mother was born in Calicut!!! Awesome is it not?? Trust the Kerala media to bring a mallu connection to any celebrity. I am sure even Robin would have been embarassed by that... :)

The Golden Quadrilateral!! Whats that? Sounds a bit like the Bermuda Triangle is it not? Well.. its nothing like that. That is the name given to the express highway which connects the 4 metros and also passes through various other big cities including Bangalore. It is an awesome 4 lane expressway of international quality. I got a chance to drive on the Chennai Bangalore Stretch of the Golden Quadrilateral... So what did i think of the road? Is it really an expressway? Is it really of international Quality?? Well more on all that in the next blog. I think this post has become pretty long already...

Across the 7 Seas...

I just got back from a short 2 week trip to the United States. It is amazing how developed that country is compared to us. Of course they have the advantage of having got independence 150 years before us and also it is a larger country than India with probably half the population. But still it is good to see everything spick and span. I transited through Frankfurt which is another huge airport. After the chaos at the Bangalore Airport, wandering around Frankfurt was so good. These countries have developed their airports so much. We dont even come close. Like the Bangalore Airport has just 2 gates and 2 aerobridges. Frankfurt has atleast 150 gates with 150 aerobridges. And to my surprise i realised that the new Bangalore International Airport will also have just 9 or 10 gates. I am sure that within a year that airport will become insufficient. Anyway going by the nature of Bangalore Traffic and the distance to the new airport i presume less peaople would use it. I think it would be cheaper to take a train to Chennai and take a flight from there. It will cost only a few extra hours. :)

Coming back to the US trip, this time i got a chance to visit New York and also stop at Washington for a few hours. NY is an amazing city. And the public transport system is top notch. I came away really impressed. And of course the roads the cars the expressways are all breathtaking. But in spite of all this i was glad to get on a flight back to Bangalore. After all 'there is no place like home'. While waiting for my baggage at the Bangalore Airport a German lady requested me to move my trolley little back from the conveyor belt so that other people could stand. I realised she was right and moved back. But i did tell her that if i dont do it, there will be 10 others to do it. And her response was "yes, right of course. After all we are now back in India :)". Just after she made the statement her expresssion seemed to indicate 'oh i am talking to an indian and maybe should not have told like that'. I just smiled at her and told her she was correct. :). After all India is India... still it was a good insight on what others thought of our country. But inspite of that she said she has been in Bangalore for 5 years and loves the place. India seems to have that magical capability to attract people....